plus 3, Breast Cancer Controversy: Will Reform Impose Guidelines? - ABC News Blogs |
- Breast Cancer Controversy: Will Reform Impose Guidelines? - ABC News Blogs
- The storm before the calm - Buffalo News
- Stefanie Spielman, 42, fought cancer in public - The Chronicle Herald
- Lawmaker says health bill won't limit mammograms - KTUU
| Breast Cancer Controversy: Will Reform Impose Guidelines? - ABC News Blogs Posted: 22 Nov 2009 08:51 AM PST « Previous | Main | Next » November 22, 2009 10:40 AM That's a key question we debated today on "This Week." Democrats say that their bill will expand preventive care coverage and prevent insurance company bureaucrats from getting between patients and doctors. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., told me the bill could lead to rationing coverage. But what's in the bill? The Senate legislation does seem to expand preventive care, but the bill also has language that could give the guidance of the Preventive Service Task Force the force of law. As I pointed out, the bill provides coverage for care that the task force has given grade of "A" or "B," but this week's new breast cancer guidelines give yearly mammograms for women between ages 40 and 50 a grade of "C," meaning they would not have to be covered. Breast cancer survivor Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, D-Fla., told me that language needs to come out of the bill and the task force recommendation "won't be controlling" in the final bill.
November 22, 2009 in This Week with George Stephanopoulos | Permalink | Share | User Comments (39) Here's your sign.......... women 1st victims of government control health care. I thought 'women and children first' was for safety and protection. This administration is selling us down the river. Women's health is secondary. Mamagrams, self checks, we don't need them. They are just boobs. I think we need to focus on the boobs in congress. Surgery is needed. Start now by contacting them. They are wrong,tell them that they will be VOTED OUT! STOP PLAYING DOCTOR! Posted by: Sue | Nov 22, 2009 11:13:33 AM The republicans use numbers that are meaningless. Signing up 5000 new to insurance is a sin. The 3.5% turndown of service by major ins co's, of course they have successfully with these same republicans weeded out most risk patients. I want these republicans to get rid of the awful, failed Medicare and see what their constituents do to them. Lets have a controlled sign uo of all uninsred and see what happens to the republican claimed 3.5%. Posted by: orion Rogers Jr | Nov 22, 2009 11:22:15 AM Thank you, Dr. Bernadine Healy for championing the already established protocols in the fight against breast cancer! Obviously, the so-called new 'directive' sends out a very 'grave' message - - - to effectively disempower women in their ablility to monitor their own physical well being and good health!! What utter nonsense! This is the same thing as 10+ years ago when so many hormone-pushing and pharmaceutical kickback taking medical doctors gladly doled out Provera (HRT) to peri-menopausal women as though it were sugar-coated placebos - "Take this - don't ask questions - this will help you!" (Yeah, right... help give you weight gain, heart attack, breast density and potential cancer!) Cancer IS a DEFINITE CRITICAL RISK - it is jaw dropping as to why would ANYONE want to reverse the guidelines in an ugly attempt to undo the benefits and progress of the last two decades! Why would ANYONE advise women against a monthly self-exam when a preponderance of cancers are detected by the patients themselves or their partners! Why would ANYONE advise against routine annual mammograms to check for cancers and lesions?? Obviously, it is all about MONEY - - - NOT SAVING LIVES! There is SOMEONE responsible for this transparent 'circling of the wagons' - it is simply 'setting up' Americans to get ready for the substandard reform the government wants to cram into new policy change!! Posted by: Arianna_Says | Nov 22, 2009 11:22:55 AM It appeared George's guest on "This Week" had read and understood the health care bill except for Debbie Wasserman Shultz. George did a great job correcting Shultz's distortion of the truth and then she looked foolish back peddling to cover up her prevarications. Representative Schultz may not have been a breast cancer survivor had the health care plan she is touting had been in effect. Posted by: rczman | Nov 22, 2009 11:24:26 AM So Republicans don't care about the women who have cancer CAUSED by the x-ray exposure of excessive mammography? There is a reason that medicine relies on scientific studies and research rather than partisan posturing, but Republicans didn't care about Bin Laden more than politics (remember the "Monica Missiles" attacks on Clinton when he tried to kill Bin Laden?) and they don't care about women's lives now. Posted by: jhw539 | Nov 22, 2009 11:27:14 AM I watch your show every week but I found this part of the show today almost unwatchable with those two women constantly talking over each other. Can't you turn off mics when that happens? Ladies speak in turn! Also if EVERYONE agrees that we need Health Care Reform how come we never get it! We have needed Health Care Reform for YEARS! Take away all the health care options the lawmakers enjoy today and I bet we would get reform tomorrow! Posted by: Vanna | Nov 22, 2009 11:28:42 AM This is a travesty of journalism. 60 votes last night in the Senate - and you bring on 75% who are opposed to the bill? Give me a break. Posted by: Matthew | Nov 22, 2009 11:36:48 AM On the video above you cut out the most important part where Marsha Blackburn reads and details the specific wording in the bill... and George agrees with her that it is what it says... that these guidelines WILL become law. Posted by: Pam Schmid | Nov 22, 2009 11:38:06 AM Access Medline or Pubmed, and enter "antidepressants" and "cancer." Waiting to be retrieved are more than sixty articles on the remarkable anticancer properties of antidepressants. You don't have to scratch your head wondering why the media is concealing this. Posted by: Julian | Nov 22, 2009 11:43:45 AM First, matt, you make a very good point. What is that all about? 60 votes in the Senate last night. Where are the folks who support health care reform and moving this country forward? Second, I wish more people would read health care related journals and blogs. The news about mammograms is not brand new information based on one study that just came out. The World Health Organization, and many European countries where the government pays for routine mammography screening, already follow these guidelines.PLUS, the mission of the Preventative Services task force is to provide evidence-based recommendations and treatment guidelines for clinicians—they are not charged with rationing care. Appointed by HHS, they are an independent group. Posted by: @Octavia | Nov 22, 2009 12:02:20 PM Obama and Dems message: kill the unborn first.. then kill the mothers.. even the left wing radical democrats haven't read the bill.. this completely stupid woman is proof of that Posted by: mickey maoist | Nov 22, 2009 12:24:09 PM Did you not watch the program this morning these recomendations will become law if the bill is passed even George had to read that part of the bill to prove the point. Why would anyone post a comment like republicans dont care about women, cant believe anything you say. Posted by: earl | Nov 22, 2009 12:32:23 PM My private (not government) healthcare company has ALREADY instituted the new guidelines. Public option vs. private coverage is not even relevant in this particular discussion, except that the HHS secretary could (in theory) override such guidelines for public plans. My insurance company is busy calculating their increased profits based on these guidelines. Posted by: Melissa | Nov 22, 2009 12:38:06 PM It was certainly apparent by this discussion who was relying on facts and knowledge of the legislation as opposed to those who play on peoples emotions. Posted by: wow | Nov 22, 2009 12:44:04 PM I knew the Dems were up to something with this health care bill....now they want more women (and men) to die from breast cancer! I guess depleting the American population is cheaper than saving it! If Obama's government really wanted to do us a favor, screening would start at age 30 AND he'd put more effort in the economy! Posted by: I knew it! | Nov 22, 2009 12:47:34 PM 1. The fearmongering has already begun. I'm all for intelligent debates, but those who are trying to control you with fear should be ignored. 2. Attacking the new recommendations is worthwhile inasmuch as it may bring new thoughts to the table. However, there is a cutoff where it doesn't make sense to do routine mammography. Seriously, should we have routine scans of girls beginning in their teenage years? Obviously not. Recommendations like this, however, generally have a lot of loopholes (i.e. those at higher risk should be screened). The analysis made by the recommendations was that there was just as likely to be harm from overtesting as from missed cancers. Posted by: 1percenter | Nov 22, 2009 12:49:58 PM Let's look at some of the facts that ABC News did not cover. Marsha Blackburn gets generious campaign contributions from health professionals, pharmaceuticals, and insurance companies. She also accepts contributions from oil companies, which pollute environment causing our health care costs to skyrocket. Individual contributors to Marsha Blackburn's election campaigns include CVS, American College of Cardiology, and American College of Radiology. They also include Pfizer, which the Obama Administration punished for defrauding Medicare. So Marsha Blackburn has vested interests in destroying health care reform, and vested interests in fabricating lies about mammograms. Unlike private, for-profit insurance, a public option is in fact run by the public, so the public can of course decide to include mammograms if they feel this helps fight breast cancer, and both the NIH and Jean Sibelius have in fact emphasized this. So while Marsha Blackburn accuses the Obama Administration of rationing health care, we already have a rationed health care system. The quality of your health care depends on the amount of money you pay. And of course, Marsha Blackburn's health care is paid for by the tax-payer, so she sees nothing wrong with denying millions of women the health care they need. Marsha Blackburn is another example of the lying and fraud that characterizes the GOP. She does not deserve the attention she is getting. Posted by: William Joseph Miller | Nov 22, 2009 12:53:19 PM Obama had nothing to do with this. He was in China. Posted by: LongT | Nov 22, 2009 1:00:48 PM The beginning of the end folks! Posted by: LongT | Nov 22, 2009 1:02:36 PM In order to save $100M for 'Obamacare', women under 50 shouldn't get mammograms, Posted by: Jack Wiseheimer | Nov 22, 2009 1:22:26 PM I thought the timing of the release of these studies was questionable and tht the stories were planted. Now, I can see that they were. Americans fall for Republican tricks of propaganda like this far too often. These stories were planted so that they would become a controversy right before the vote. Let's not keep falling for this. Posted by: travelertraveler | Nov 22, 2009 1:22:41 PM I thought the timing of the releases of the two women's studies was questionable. Now I can see that these were times by the Republican machine to be used as propaganda for this healthcare battle. Most Americans want healthcare reform, so let's not fall for the propaganda this time. Posted by: lifesajourney | Nov 22, 2009 1:27:08 PM Marsha Blackburn is my congress "person" and she will lie when the truth would serve. Hopefully she will not be our congress "person" long because she SUCKS and doesn't care one whit about the people in her district. Posted by: Jody | Nov 22, 2009 1:28:23 PM travelertraveler--You are so right!! I just don't get the objection to changes to our healthcare. Republicans keep fearing the government restricting doctors and not covering so many tests and procedures--oh, wait, that's what we have now, only it's the insurance companies doing it to us!!!! They just don't want to have every working person have access to affordable insurance...Christians, I ask-WWJD???? Posted by: VITAL2U | Nov 22, 2009 1:32:01 PM This smells to high heaven, and should be investigated as to WHY this group broke this ridiculousness report right before the health care clousure vote. I have a feeling you will find the sticky fingers of Big Insurance and a few Republicans sweeten the deal for this "committee". Posted by: Trent | Nov 22, 2009 1:34:04 PM Post a comment This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
| The storm before the calm - Buffalo News Posted: 22 Nov 2009 04:26 AM PST Share this story: WASHINGTON — Calm. That's not a word one hears much these days, but calm is what some are urging in the wake of a new federal report on breast cancer screening. Released Monday, the report has caused a stir with its recommendation that women in their 40s don't need annual mammograms and that self-exams no longer should be part of a doctor's instructions to female patients. Instead, the report suggests, women 40-49 who are not in a high-risk group should wait until 50 to begin mammograms and then have them every other year. This is surprising news to women who, for the past 30 years, have been urged to spend part of their shower reviewing their breast tissue and submitting annually to the vise otherwise known as a mammogram. Is this yet another one of those "eggs are good for you eggs are bad for you" routines? Which is it, please? Meanwhile, the timing of the report in the midst of a health care reform debate about reducing medical costs has eyebrows raised. Under the proposed reform, the federal recommendations are to be used for setting standards for insurance coverage. Could the research be aimed at cutting costs at the expense of women's health? While some cancer groups, including the American Cancer Society, have objected strenuously to the panel's recommendations, Susan G. Komen for the Cure, the worldwide advocacy organization, is aiming for a more measured — strategic —tone. It would be a mistake to overreact, says Eric Winer, Harvard oncologist and chief scientific adviser to the Komen group. Instead, Nancy Brinker, Komen founder and the woman responsible for "pinking" the world, sees the report as yet another opportunity for activism. If current screening is imperfect, why not make it better? You don't get pink ribbons on everything from running shoes to electric mixers, after all, by going negative. Thus, Brinker, who recently bathed Egypt's pyramids in pink lights during one of Komen's 130 annual runs, sees the federal report as a good thing — a "clarion call" for funders, researchers and government to deliver a lower-cost, more-effective screening tool. "We need 'tomorrow technology' and we need people to invest in it," she says. The Komen organization, which funds 1,900 education, awareness and screening programs around the world, isn't changing its own recommendations for annual mammograms and self-exams for women 40 and older. Komen's goal is more access to screening, not less. Still, both Brinker and Winer acknowledge that there's more agreement than disagreement with the findings of the report, issued by the U. S. Preventive Services Task Force. The problem is that "we've sought out the areas of controversy rather than the areas of consensus," says Winer. Areas of agreement include: that mammograms do save lives in both younger and older women; that it is travesty that one-third of women in the world don't have access to screening; and that while imperfect, the mammogram is the best test we have. Areas of controversy surround the when, whom and how often. Breast cancer is an emotional issue. Computer models aren't reassuring if you're a breast cancer victim. Or if someone you love might have survived with earlier detection. Brinker understands the personal dimension on a profound level. A survivor of breast cancer, she lost her sister to the disease at age 36. Even so, she prefers action to reaction. These days, Brinker isn't focused only on breast cancer, but on all cancers, which she says are decimating populations around the world. If Brinker has her way, the debate relaunched Monday will lead to improved technology so crucial to detection. If history is any guide, we may soon expect to see new pink screening gizmos that are cheap, portable and accurate. And the world will be calmer. And we shall all eat eggs.  Log into MyBuffalo to post a comment This content has passed through fivefilters.org.  This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now |
| Stefanie Spielman, 42, fought cancer in public - The Chronicle Herald Posted: 22 Nov 2009 03:14 AM PST [fivefilters.org: unable to retrieve full-text content] ... State star Chris Spielman who led a public fight against breast cancer, died Thursday after a lengthy battle with the disease. She was 42. Stefanie Spielman died at the family's home in Upper Arlington, surrounded by her family, said WBNS ... |
| Lawmaker says health bill won't limit mammograms - KTUU Posted: 22 Nov 2009 07:11 AM PST
By PHILIP ELLIOTT Associated Press Writer WASHINGTON (AP) - Lawmakers broke along party lines on a new aspect of the health care debate Sunday as a former National Institutes of Health chief urged women to ignore guidelines that delay the start of breast cancer screenings. Republicans pointed to the guidelines as evidence the Democrats' proposals for a health care overhaul would yield limits on mammograms and a rationing of care. Democrats dismissed those worries and said Republicans were stoking fears without facts. Under the Democratic plan, a new independent institute would advise the health secretary. However, the health secretary would not be required to deny or extend coverage in a government-backed health plan based on recommendations from the institute. A government-appointed panel said last week that women generally should begin routine mammograms in their 50s, rather than their 40s - sparking cries of outrage and claims a taxpayer-funded health care option wouldn't pay for the screenings. "I'm saying very powerfully ignore them, because unequivocally ... this will increase the number of women dying of breast cancer," said Dr. Bernadine Healy, a director of the National Institutes of Health under Republican President George H.W. Bush. "Women in their 40s have a very aggressive kind of breast cancer. They tend to progress fast. And to not screen women in that age group is astounding to me, and it goes against the bulk of individuals who are actually caring for patients. A brain cancer patient who ran for the Senate as a Republican, Healy added: "You may save some money ... but you're not going to save lives." Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, a Texas Republican who is seeking her state's governor's office, said the new scientific data is "the beginning of rationing." She said it will provide the government with an excuse not to provide payments for more frequent screenings and that insurance companies would then follow suit. Rep. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., said the recommendations will force Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius to exclude the preventive measures from any plan that receives government funds. "They become the law, the mandate," she said. Safeguards against the dire situation Republican predict already exist. All states except Utah make insurers cover mammograms, and 20 states require coverage that starts at age 40, according to 2007 data compiled by the Washington-based National Women's Law Center. The U.S. Preventive Services Task Force issued its recommendations on Nov. 16, saying getting screened for breast cancer so early and so often leads to too many false alarms and unneeded biopsies without substantially improving women'sodds of survival. "As a breast cancer survivor, I came out against these recommendations," Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Florida Democrat, said Sunday. "Every major cancer organization has come out against these recommendations. The task force language in that bill actually makes sure that ... preventive services like mammograms and colonoscopies and other cancer screenings would be free." GOP lawmakers said the Democratic health care plan, which the Senate allowed to inch forward Saturday night and remains President Barack Obama's top domestic priority, would set the nation toward massive government control. "Do these recommendations make sense from a cost standpoint? Absolutely, from a cost standpoint, they're right," said Rep. Tom Coburn, an Oklahoma Republican who is a medical doctor. "From a patient standpoint, they're atrocious. And that's the problem with a bureaucracy stepping between a physician and their patient." Healy appeared on "Fox News Sunday" while Hutchison appeared on NBC's "Meet the Press." Blackburn, Wasserman Shultz and Coburn appeared on ABC's "This Week." Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed. This content has passed through fivefilters.org. |
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